Year of the Snake

Despite being bullied by its northern neighbor, the Philippines still celebrate the Chinese New Year, as the country has a substantial population of Chinese descent (including my paternal grandfather).

To welcome the Year of the Snake (seems apt, considering what China is doing to steal our islands) on the lunar new year, Filipino-Chinese would celebrate with fireworks and parades - complete with dancing dragons and lions to ward off evil spirits and attract good luck. These are done in the Chinatown, in villages with large Filipino-Chinese population, and in the malls.

Trinkets made from semi-precious stones and gold plating are also bought and kept, to attract good health and fortune. Gifts are also exchanged, mostly either money contained in red envelops called ang pao, or boxes of sticky glutinous rice pudding called tikoy.

So, Gong Xi Fa Ca everyone, even to our neighbor on the north. Just keep off Kalayaan Islands and Bajo de Masinloc, OK? Those islands are ours.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Guest post by Mara Ione Sarail Mapun? Where is that?” I get this question a lot when people ask me about my hometown. I’d ramble on and on the island (its location and the culture and the pretty spots...) but since the place is not really in any of the Philippines tourist spots and is in the middle of nowhere, I might as well talk about Atlantis instead. But the island does exist. Mapun Tawi-Tawi or Cagayan de Sulu) is an island municipality in the Sulu Sea on the southwestern extreme of the Philippines, located very close to Sabah. Or from the way I see it on the Philippine map, the island is located on the Philippine’s “armpit”.

Mapun is a volcanic island. The picture above shows Mt. Nanggoy, an inactive volcano near the Sapah Lake. The most popular tourist attraction in Mapun would be the three crater lakes on the west part of the island. Legend says that the three lakes were once volcanoes that erupted together. The first two, Danao and Singuwang, became freshwater crater lakes (n…

One of the main reasons why I am always drawn to museums when I travel is that I would want to see, in real life, the fascinating things that I've only read in books or have seen in the films, such as archaeological artifacts or the paintings of Van Gogh and Dali. Museums give you access to all that. I majored in History when I was an undergraduate in the University of the Philippines. As such, I am always excited to see artifacts and historical curiosities that I encounter during my travels. But sometimes, they also make me sad, like when I saw the Golden Tara of Agusan in the Field Museum in Chicago.

The Golden Tara is a gold statue of a Hindu-Malayan deity discovered in 1917 in Esperanza, Agusan del Sur, in southern Philippines. Weighing about four pounds, the 21-karat gold statue depicts a woman deity sitting cross-legged, ornamented with a headdress and various accruements in the arms and legs. It was dated to early 13th century, and is proof that ancient Filipinos have extens…